Child Development

MOH’s Screen Time Guidelines for Children in Singapore, Explained

The real age-by-age limits, the two hard rules every family should know, and what it means for your child’s pre-school day.

In January 2025, Singapore’s Ministry of Health (MOH) issued updated, significantly stricter guidance on screen use in children, developed in consultation with experts across healthcare, social, and educational agencies. The guidance sits under Grow Well SG, a national strategy to build healthier lifestyle habits in children and adolescents from an early age.

For many parents, the headline figures are already familiar in rough outline. What is less widely understood is exactly what counts as “screen use,” the two specific rules that apply regardless of age, and how the guidance is now being applied inside pre-schools themselves.

The Age-by-Age Guidelines

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Under 18 Months

No screen use at all, including background screens such as a TV left on during a meal, with the sole exception of interactive video calls with family.

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18 Months to 6 Years

Less than 1 hour of screen use per day outside school, limited to high-quality, educational, interactive content, ideally co-viewed and discussed with an adult rather than used alone.

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7 to 12 Years

Recreational screen time kept under 2 hours a day, not counting time genuinely required for schoolwork.

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Notice that the guidance for 18 months to 6 years is not simply “less screen time.” It is specifically about content quality and interaction, not just the clock. A short burst of passive, low-quality content is treated very differently from the same amount of time spent in genuinely interactive, co-viewed, educational content.

Two Rules That Apply Regardless of Age

Beyond the age-by-age limits, the guidance includes two specific restrictions that apply to every age group covered, not just the youngest children.

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No screens during meals. This includes background screens, such as leaving the television on while a family eats together, not just a child actively holding a device.

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No screens in the hour before bedtime. Screen use close to bedtime is specifically flagged as disruptive to the wind-down children need before sleep.

What This Means Inside a Pre-school

The updated guidance extends directly into pre-schools and primary schools, not just family life at home. In practice, this means devices for children under 18 months have no place in a pre-school setting at all, and for children aged 18 months to 6 years, any screen use during the school day should be limited to genuine teaching and learning purposes, delivered thoughtfully by educators, rather than used as a general-purpose activity or a way to occupy a group of children.

Practical Tips for Managing Screen Time at Home

Co-view, don't just hand it over.

Watching or using an app together, and talking about what is happening on screen, turns passive viewing into an interactive, language-rich experience.

Choose quality over quantity.

Not all screen time is equal. Interactive, educational content designed for a child's age is treated very differently from passive entertainment.

Replace, don't just restrict.

A screen-time limit is easier to hold to when it is paired with a genuinely engaging alternative, active play, a book, a hands-on activity, rather than just an absence.

How ChildFirst Approaches AI and Technology Within These Guidelines

A curriculum that genuinely prepares children for an AI-shaped future does not mean putting a toddler in front of a screen. For our youngest children, our AI and computational thinking curriculum is deliberately screen-free, built around unplugged coding activities, physical coding cards, and hands-on robots a child directs with their own hands, not a device. The point is to build the thinking, not the screen habit. Where screens are used with older pre-schoolers, it is always in the purposeful, educator-guided way MOH’s own guidance describes, never as a passive activity or a way to occupy a group of children.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are MOH's screen time guidelines for children in Singapore?
Updated in January 2025: no screen use at all for children under 18 months (except interactive video calls), under 1 hour a day outside school for children 18 months to 6 years, and under 2 hours a day of recreational screen time for children 7 to 12 years.

Does the under-18-months rule really include background screens, like a TV left on?
Yes. The updated guidance specifically includes background screen use, such as keeping a television on during a meal, not only screens a child is actively engaging with directly.

What is Grow Well SG, and how does it relate to these guidelines?
Grow Well SG is the national health promotion strategy these updated screen-time guidelines sit under, aimed at building healthier lifestyle habits in children and adolescents from an early age.

Do these guidelines apply inside pre-schools, or only at home?
Both. The updated guidance extends into pre-schools and primary schools, where screen use for the youngest children is limited to genuine teaching and learning purposes, not entertainment.

Is all educational screen time treated the same as entertainment screen time?
No. The guidance distinguishes high-quality, interactive, age-appropriate content, ideally used together with an adult, from passive entertainment, which is held to a much stricter standard.

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